In the old days, commodities or currencies had a tendency to trend. Trend-following was great in the ’60s, sort of OK in the ’70s, but not OK in the ’80s.

You look for anomalies in the data, when efficient market hypothesis is incorrect. Any one anomaly might be random but with enough data you can tell that it is not. If an anomaly is persistent for a sufficiently long time, the probability of it being random is not high. However, these things fade after a while and anomalies get washed out.

My hedge fund charged the highest fees in the world at one time: 5% and 44% of the profits.

Bringing science into the investing world has reduced volatility, increased liquidity, narrowed spreads.

Watch the video at http://www.ted.com/talks/jim_simons_a_rare_interview_with_the_mathematician_who_cracked_wall_street?utm_source=newsletter_daily&utm_campaign=daily&utm_medium=email&utm_content=button__2015-09-03 or read the full transcript at http://www.ted.com/talks/jim_simons_a_rare_interview_with_the_mathematician_who_cracked_wall_street/transcript?language=en